Chinese official on SMS voting: “txtng votes ripe 4 abuse”

Believe it or not, some officials in China are elected by way of text message …

"VOTE 4 OBAMA!" "CLINTON LOL" "MCCAIN2008 4 UR MOM!" "RONPAUL 4LYFE" Just imagine texting in your vote for your favorite political candidate as if they were American Idol contestants. More of the American public would vote than ever before, but the potential for abuse... well, you can get the picture

Believe it or not, some officials in China are "elected" this way, largely due to the popularity of similar shows in China. So many people voted for shows like Super Girl and other Chinese clones of American Idol that officials apparently thought, "why not?"

And yes, the results are about what one might expect. National People's Congress representative Zhao Linzhong is concerned about the problem, voicing his concern over text message voting yesterday at the beginning of the 11th annual meeting. He pointed out, according to Xinhua news agency, that some candidates merely shell out cash for people to vote, which of course translated to richer candidates being more likely to win. It's unclear whether local governments that use this method of voting have implemented any way to block (or at least not count) more than one vote from the same person.

Zhao even went so far as to chastise TV shows for reducing the importance of voting to a text message. "In some places voting by text messages is even used to choose local famous brands or model workers, which vulgarizes the activities that are serious in nature," he said, while calling on a ban for text message voting.

Ironically, the Chinese public can already no longer vote via text message for talent shows on TV. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) decided to put a ban on text message voting for talent show contestants last year, in part to help "manage" the free-for-all voting process.